Jim Sharp “ATCQ Midnight Marauders Revisited EP”

Jim Sharp, one of my new favorite deejay/producer/chief rocka/b-ball heads, reached out to me and blessed the T.R.O.Y. Blog with this exclusive piece. I don’t have much to say, other than it’s an absolute MUST download.

“On November 9th 1993 A Tribe Called Quest’s ‘Midnight Marauders’ dropped. ATCQ was and still is my favourite rap group and listening to Marauders now, it seems incredible how it’s endured the test of time. With the advancement of technology it has been possible to attain previously unreleased vocals and with this in mind I started to rebuild tracks from Marauders from their original samples. (it’s important to note that technology has only moved so far and the majority of vocals were impossible to get) I took a lot of time to imagine how Q-tip would have captured the samples, probably using a turntable and an MPC. Consciously not using pitch correct, sampling one side of the audio and bouncing it to stereo and continually trying to get the right filter, echo, pitch and sound from the original sample. I also re-imagined big sections of tracks paying homage to some of my favourite producers such as Premier, DJ Shadow, 9th Wonder and Large Professor. I thought about what it would have been like to have some legends of the game such as Biggie, Nas and Biz Markie dropping guest verses next to Tip and Phife. I completely understand how dear Tribe fans hold Marauders and it was important to me that it had a fresh take but stayed true to the original ethos. This was a labour of love and I hope people dig it for what it is.” – Jim Sharp